NMIRF investments back up to $350-M level

Buoyed by an upsurge in U.S. economic activity and the official end of the recession, the Northern Mariana Islands Retirement Fund’s international investments grew by a modest 3.46 percent in March, reflecting an $11.72-million increase in the portfolio’s market value.

Based on the monthly report of Fund money manager Merrill Lynch, the Fund’s overseas investments grew from $338.45 million in February to $350.18 million in March, putting a brake on the slide in the portfolio’s market value that began in January this year.

This is the first time that the Fund’s investments broke through the $350 million mark after 9-11. Just before the September 11 attacks, the Fund’s overseas investments were valued at $352 million. After the attacks, they were down to $313 million and have, since then, been seesawing between growth and decline.

The growth in March was particularly pronounced in the equities market, with the Fund’s investments growing by 4.04 percent, or $272.74 million, from February’s $262.14 million.

As to the Fund’s capital exposure in fixed income instruments, March’s $77.44 million improved on February’s $76.31 million, reflecting a slight jump of 1.47 percent.

According to Merrill Lynch, the growth in the Fund’s equities investments was particularly strong in the small capital equities, which posted a 7.64 percent growth, jacking up February’s small capital equity value of $39.99 million to $43.04 million.

International equities came in at a slightly weaker 6.22-percent increase, bumping up the instrument’s market value by a little over $1.4 million.

Although large capital equities posted the lowest increase at 3.07 percent, it managed to jolt the market value of the Fund’s large capital equity investments past the $200-million mark, coming in at a strong $205.11 million as compared to February’s $199 million.

Although the strategic composition of the Fund’s overseas portfolio recommends investment in equities at 76 percent and fixed income at 24 percent, the current set-up shows the Fund’s investments with 78 percent in equities, leaving 22 percent in fixed income investment vehicles.

Large capital equities make up the bulk of the Fund’s investment in the equities market, taking up a hefty 59 percent, followed by 12 percent in small caps. International equities take up the rest at 7 percent.

This has consistently been the case in the last several months.

In an earlier interview, Fund legal counsel Kathleen Troy Rucker said they are now in the process of finding a money manager that would handle this matter exclusively so that the Fund’s international exposure would be refocused to conform with the strategic composition.

Doing so would ensure that the Fund’s investments are kept at their optimum earning level, she added.